honesty

it had been a long day at the hospital. started off with medical ward rounds with the med unit we’re with, and we (ethan and i) saw this dude with acromegaly. considering how rare it was (5 per million), i think we were pretty lucky to see one for ourselves. i only previously saw pictures of enlarged hands and stuff on lecture slides during those endocrinology lectures, so it was refreshing to have a real gauge for myself when i put my own hand beside the patient’s and note the difference. he also had a mechanical heart valve replacement so we could hear his heart ticking away like a bomb when we were beside. the registrar told us to have a listen to his heart and that was pretty cool.

we also had a talk by our surgical professor on trauma. he is involved in the course for “Early Management of Severe Trauma”, a 2.5 day intensive course for management of severe injuries in the first 1 -2 hours. Its amazing how we can go through the basic ABCDEF in such detail. learnt a lot.

as we left the hospital at about 6pm, i was backing out of the carparking lot. i don’t know if it was carelessness, rashness, stupidity or tiredness. i did not back out of the lot straight for a few metres before turning the steering wheel. i turned the steering wheel immediately and backed out. needless to say, i crashed into the small hatchback parked beside mine. it was bad. i scratched it deep, left a big dent in the front door. it looked something like this:

I shouldn’t have but i was cursing like mad. I actually left the “scene of crime”. We were leaving the parking lot when this guy, OUT of no where, waved us down. i thought he was the owner. turned out to be some dude who needed to hitch a ride. i took a quick glance and noted he didn’t seem to have any weapons, so we took him. i thought, hey we have 2 guys trained in advanced close combat in the military. (on hind sight that’s a risky move, close combat probably would be useless when we’re seated in the front seats and have a knife to our necks). anyway, on the way, he was like “what happened back there manz?” he said he wasn’t going to tell or anything. i dropped him off, checked the damage on my car, and drove. who was this guy?? why did he suddenly appear out of nowhere, and asked to dropped off a location opposite the hospital, so that i could be on the way to turn back to the parking lot?

as i drove, i thought. i didn’t think i could live with it, so i went back to the “scene of crime” and left a note with my contact details and took some pictures of the damage done. i got contacted by the owner today. she thanked me for my honesty and told me it was much appreciated. i’d rather pay the excess damage costs after insurance claims, than to live with a guilty conscious.

the question that prompted me back to myself was “What would Jesus do?” clique as it may sound, it was what propelled me to turn back to leave the note. i could have driven off and no one would ever know (other than ethan my passenger and that random dude i gave a lift to). But its good i didn’t and i think i can be proud of this act. its probably a good testimony to others and a good example to share during bible studies, etc. it was a bad driving mistake, and i ought to be more careful next time. the consolation was at least i was honest. not sure how my parents would react, but it was the right thing to do.